Uptown Saturday Night

The allure of chic amenities tantalizes a bold cab driver (_____ ______ as Wardell Franklin), but he needs an earnest wingperson to attempt to gain entry into the club.

Mr. Jackson (Sidney Poitier) has reservations concerning the somewhat elevated price tag, but he also can't deny he's curious, and doesn't want to disappoint his friend.

Their clever ruse proves rather prosperous the following adventurous Saturday night, but just as they're joyfully raking it in, several thugs crookedly come a' callin'.

Disillusion lugubriously abounds but even more so the very next day, when Jackson discovers he's won the lottery, and the winning ticket's in his wallet.

While he had reservations about the club, the massive payload generates audacity, and he decides to search for the thieving no-goodniks, in the unfamiliar underground. 

Franklin comes along for the ride and after a private detective exasperates their frustration (Richard Pryor as Sharp Eye Washington), it's off to question notorious phenoms with a plan as blunt as it is distressing.

But fate rewards them for embracing daring and soon they've found a compelling lead, even found the individuals responsible, an enormous return without much of an effort.

They find themselves enabling the brokerage of a new criminal partnership for their troubles, which even leads to a game of baseball, at a local church BBQ.

Hapless celebrity serendipitous success with a lack of consideration for the resonant danger, Sidney Poitier's Uptown Saturday Night placates stilted severe stresses.

Ye olde versatile implausibility efficiently achieving herculean goals, without letting disputatious doubts defile their frank dissimulation.

Like the bumbling Inspector Clouseau or the maladroit MacGruber, Jackson and Franklin find working solutions to problems they never wished they'd had.

The absurd situations generate levity which in turn manufacture humour, as humble laidback domestic reticence embraces virile volatility.

Some of the additional plot devices contemporary audiences take for granted (security at the club, others searching for the stolen goods), may be difficult to find within the film, but there's still a pioneering sense of improvised good fortune which characteristically excels.

Probably wouldn't have gone to such lengths myself but who's to say what's to be done?

Didn't know Sidney Poitier directed so many films.

What a career.

What a lifetime.